Exemplary absorbent articles include training pants, diapers, incontinence products, disposable underwear, medical garments, absorbent swim wear, and the like. Training pants (albeit, not exclusively) are disposable absorbent articles configured for use in the toilet training process. Toilet training is a process that includes many training techniques and aids that can be used by parents or other caregivers. One aspect of the total toilet training process is changing from the use of diapers to the use of training pants to help the child understand that he or she should now use the toilet.
Many caregivers underestimate the difficulty of teaching the toilet training process to young children. If a child does not respond to an initial toilet training instruction or introduction, the caregiver can be at a loss for finding techniques, methods, or teaching tools to encourage the child to master the art of toilet training. Thus, while various teaching tools such as books, videotapes, charts with stickers, personalized toilets, and interactive toilet training kits are available, there remains a need for improved motivational mechanisms to facilitate the toilet training process.
One motivational mechanism is the use of training pants having an improved aesthetic appearance. Specifically, a child is encouraged to wear a garment that resembles underwear worn by older children. Thus, there is an ongoing need to increase the appeal of the toilet training process to children, and to improve the aesthetic appearance of training pant. However, it is important that any modifications to the training pants to meet these needs do not compromise the use of the articles or any functional features of the articles (e.g., wetness indicators, absorbency, leakage protection, etc.).
Current training pants typically include an outer cover, a bodyside liner, and an absorbent structure disposed between the outer cover and the topsheet. Some known training pants include outwardly extending front and back side portions that can be joined together, either permanently or refastenably, in respective pairs to form sides of the pant. An elastic waistband material is often bonded between the outer cover and the bodyside liner, or to the body-facing side of the bodyside liner, adjacent one or both of the longitudinal ends of the training pant to define a gathered waistband. The elastic waistband material is often not readily visible to either the caregiver or the wearer. Further, the elastic waistband material is typically positioned only within a central portion of the training pant. The side portions of the training pant (i.e., the front and back side portions) are often free from the waistband material. That is, the waistband material is not typically located on the side portions of the training pant.
Thus, the waistband material of conventional training pants is typically discontinuous, extends around only a portion of a wearer's waist during use, and is not readily visible from either the garment-facing side or the body-facing side of the training pant. Moreover, the gathers formed by the waistband, which are often only in a central portion of the training pant, are absent from the side portions. As a result, current training pants have a waistband that is significantly and obviously different from typical underwear, which typically have a fully encircling waistband visible from the body-facing side and the garment-facing side. In addition, the discontinuous waistband of typical training pants detracts from their aesthetic appearance.
Accordingly, there is a need for a training pant having fully encircling bodyside and garment-side waistbands and a manufacturing method that enables a waistband to be placed on the bodyside and garment-side of a training pant to form a fully encircling waistband.